The Judicial Board (J-Board) selected six new members for the 2016-2017 academic year from a pool of 40 applicants, which is slightly fewer applicants than applied last year. Brian Bristol ’19, Cullen Geary ’18, Oceanna Pak ’19, Maya Singh ’19, Ana Timoney-Gomez ’18 and Emmett Ulian ’19 will join the eight veteran members of the J-Board this summer.
The applicants submitted a written application consisting of general background information and several short essays and met with the J-Board for individual interviews. About half of the initial applicants moved on to the second phase—a group interview in which candidates discuss a hypothetical case while the J-Board observes.
The application process is rigorous, demanding time and considerable thought, but Timoney-Gomez explained that “it needs to be a serious process because it’s a very serious role.”
“I was most intimidated by the individual interview because usually an interview is a one-on-one or two-on-one, but this was a one-on-J-Board,” Timoney-Gomez said.
“The one thing I really like about [the application] was that there wasn’t a spot to put your resume,” Ulian said. “I think, a lot of times, people get really bogged down in that kind of thing. I was really appreciative that they weren’t really concerned about what you’d done or what you’d achieved—they were more concerned with what you thought.”
Within two weeks of the final interview, the J-Board emails their decision to the candidates. Usually, an email to the Bowdoin community announcing the new members follows soon after. This year, the community announcement was not issued until April 4, weeks after the selection process, which began back in January, had concluded.
According to J-Board Chair Maggie Acosta ’16, “With a lot of the events that had been happening around campus, particularly the “tequila” party,...the deans were pretty busy.”
With selection completed, the new J-Board members have a little over a month until their training begins in May. During training, members will meet with the deans, consider hypothetical cases and practice asking “the right questions in the right ways to get the information people are interested in,” said Acosta. Then, new members will sit in on a case to “see how it works in real life.” In their first or second semester on the J-Board, new members will sit on their first official case.
In his time on the J-Board, Ulian hopes to change the campus environment for the better. In his six months at Bowdoin, he has realized that “sometimes still there are instances where people might not feel totally welcome in places or might feel threatened by things that happen on campus or...how other people treat them.” He feels that “being on the Judicial Board is a good way to try and make a positive difference in that area.”
Timoney-Gomez also hopes to help improve Bowdoin as best she can. “I think the J-Board is special because you’re an individual working with other individuals, and maybe if you fix this smaller situation and improve it and create a better environment from it, you will in turn make a better environment for Bowdoin.”
“I think that I’m someone who, in my time here at Bowdoin, has had the opportunity to meet a lot of different groups of people and has had a very diverse experience,” Timoney-Gomez said. “I think that that is probably one of the most critical components of being a member of J-Board—being a representative of the student body.”